Ok, so I've written about the very unfriendly practices designed to mommy-track women in academia before. (See: Feeling like a career failure after baby...). However, one year later and still feeling the sting, I found an article in the NYT (Poor Economy Slams Brakes on Women's Workplace Progress) that confirms that this phenomenon of involuntary mommy-tracking extends beyond academia and into all types of work environments.  The article points out that many women are just thinking about giving up.

This comes from an aside in another post. DH and I have many friends we've known for 20+ years. We are noticing that most of our contemporaries, friends and associates, are having marital problems such that everyone is talking divorce lately. From previous experience I know many of these couples will not divorce, but it is sad that every time we encounter our friends or go to a professional gathering, the same phenomenon appears. The wife takes me aside and DH gets a confidential report from the husband that the couple is "having problems." When we compare our own, not so ideal but generally good, situation to the couple in question, we realize our problems may be minimal in comparison.

 I am wondering if anyone else has had this experience? For all of my adult life all I wanted was a successful academic career (research, tenure, etc. My parents could not afford college so I started as a non-traditional student in my mid-twenties and worked my ass off finally finishing my Ph.D. in philosophy at the ripe old age of 39. Having children as a working class person meant a life of poverty and because I wanted a career, my husband and I decided to forgo parenthood in favor of helping our working class nieces and nephews with college.

Though I should be a realist and admit that I am too old to be seen as a promising academic, I cannot learn to accept the current situation.  Three months after completing my dissertation, my OB-Gyn found a lump in my breast and growing tumors in my uterus. She placed me on a drug that increased my fertility immensely and told me that I did not have to worry about pregnancy due to my age. She never told me about the increase in fertility as I found that out after I became pregnant. It gets better...